Random Thoughts on Game Over
Gender, Race and Violence in Video Games
Interaction between player and game: Physical and emotional/psychological associations. Players become (main) character with use of perespective selection, character voice-overs. New level of realism (live-motion capture and 3-D modeling). Media images blur the line between fact and fiction.
Digitized masculinity: Hyper-masculinity (imposing size, power, aggressiveness). Gaming creators are predominately male; is this obvious by game content. The fantasy world is actually depicted as "normal" and "real."
Femininity in video games: Exploitation or Empowerment? Strong, self-defending female characters...yet unattainable/disproportionate beauty standards and sexualization of young females. Sex sells, no matter what medium is used; video games are no exception.
Depiction of race: Vivid illustrations of cultural representations (gender, race and ethnicity). Seen through a "white male" view; stereotyping of people of color through overgeneralized imagery (feathers = Native Americans). Exoticism of non-white ehnicities (voodoo ritual, supernatural).
Video games as a catalyst for real-life violence: Consequences are not realized; fighting is often rewarded. Violence is very graphic, very extreme- more so than other media representations.
Rehearsing for murder: Effective simulation of killing? Technology itself is not violent; rather, it is its content. And it is with this content players must interpret what is right and wrong, what is real and make-believe.
Though video games aren't truly a simulation of something we see on a regular basis (spine-pulling, head-exploding, overly violent environment; top-heavy heroines doing trapeze acts), does this "fake real" have the ability to supercede "the real"? The idea of simulacrum comes into play: could this fantasy world we indulge in (sometimes in one sitting, hours at a time) be better than world we live in today?
Interaction between player and game: Physical and emotional/psychological associations. Players become (main) character with use of perespective selection, character voice-overs. New level of realism (live-motion capture and 3-D modeling). Media images blur the line between fact and fiction.
Digitized masculinity: Hyper-masculinity (imposing size, power, aggressiveness). Gaming creators are predominately male; is this obvious by game content. The fantasy world is actually depicted as "normal" and "real."
Femininity in video games: Exploitation or Empowerment? Strong, self-defending female characters...yet unattainable/disproportionate beauty standards and sexualization of young females. Sex sells, no matter what medium is used; video games are no exception.
Depiction of race: Vivid illustrations of cultural representations (gender, race and ethnicity). Seen through a "white male" view; stereotyping of people of color through overgeneralized imagery (feathers = Native Americans). Exoticism of non-white ehnicities (voodoo ritual, supernatural).
Video games as a catalyst for real-life violence: Consequences are not realized; fighting is often rewarded. Violence is very graphic, very extreme- more so than other media representations.
Rehearsing for murder: Effective simulation of killing? Technology itself is not violent; rather, it is its content. And it is with this content players must interpret what is right and wrong, what is real and make-believe.
Though video games aren't truly a simulation of something we see on a regular basis (spine-pulling, head-exploding, overly violent environment; top-heavy heroines doing trapeze acts), does this "fake real" have the ability to supercede "the real"? The idea of simulacrum comes into play: could this fantasy world we indulge in (sometimes in one sitting, hours at a time) be better than world we live in today?
posted by Carly @ 2:59 PM
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